"Your growth and development since the war have been good, very good—better than I was prepared to see; but compare it with San Francisco, Denver, Portland, Oregon, Leavenworth, Chicago, St. Louis, or hundreds of places I could mention, less favored in climate and location than Atlanta. These cities have been notoriously open to the whole world, and all men felt perfectly at liberty to go there with their families, with their acquired wealth and with their personal energy. You must guarantee the same, not superficially or selfishly, but with that sincerity and frankness which carries conviction.
GEN. LEW. WALLACE.
"Personally, I would not like to check the flow of emigration westward, because of the vast natural importance of that region, but I do believe that every patriot should do what he can to benefit every part of our whole country, and I am sure that good will result from turning a part of this great tide of human life and energy southward along the valleys of the Allegheny Mountains, especially of East Tennessee, northern Georgia and Alabama, and if I can aid you in this good work I assure you that I will do so with infinite pleasure.
"Excuse me if I ask you as an editor to let up somewhat on the favorite hobby of 'carpet-baggers.' I know that you personally apply the term only to political adventurers, but others, your readers, construe it otherwise. I have resided in San Francisco, Leavenworth and St. Louis, and of the men who have built up these great cities, I assert that not one in fifty was a native of the place. All, or substantially all, were 'carpet-baggers,' i.e., emigrants from all parts of the world, many of them from the South. Our Supreme Court, Congress and our most prominent and intellectual men, now hail from localities of their own adoption, not of their birth. Let the emigrant to Georgia feel and realize that his business and social position result from his own industry, his merits and his virtues, and not from the accidental place of his birth, and soon the great advantages of climate, soil, minerals, timber, etc., etc., will fill up your country and make Atlanta one of the most prosperous, beautiful and attractive cities, not alone of the South, but of the whole continent, an end which I desire quite as much as you do."
In the Spring of 1876 he talked at some length with a newspaper writer, about the South and the leaders of the late rebellion, and for the latter he expressed only esteem and friendship. "About two weeks ago," he said, "I received a letter from a mutual friend in New York, asking if I would recommend General Braxton Bragg for appointment in the Khedive's army. I promptly replied that it would afford me pleasure to promote the interests of Bragg in that direction. I feel very kindly to all the Southern Generals. In fact, I think people everywhere throughout the North and West cherish no bad feeling. Jeff Davis is the only exception made. I do not know why it is that the Northern people hate him so, but they do, and will never get over their feeling in that respect. Davis did no worse than anybody else, but I suppose the people are bound to have somebody to hate. For instance, the Southern people hate General Butler about as bad or worse than the Northerners hate Davis. I suppose the two sections, while determined to cultivate friendly feelings among the people at large, require something on which to expend the hate that will unavoidably show itself at intervals. So far as the Northern and Southern people are concerned, they are rapidly assimilating, and in a few years they will be one people in fact as well as in name. Put the Southern and Northern soldiers together and you have the strongest element, in a military sense, that could be gotten together for any national purpose. As fighters, they would be invincible. The Southerners are impetuous and will fight quicker and fiercer, but they give out sooner; the Northerners are slower, but they stay longer; they have more endurance, and fight steadier and more stubbornly. In fighting qualities, the South represents France, and the North England. Put the two together and the devil couldn't whip them."
"General, why don't you recommend Jeff Davis for an appointment in Egypt?"
"Oh, I wouldn't do that; anybody but Jeff; I would not indorse Jeff."
"Perhaps it would be a public benefaction to do so?"
"Well, I never viewed it in that light. On second thought, I would gladly indorse Jeff, if he would leave the country."